Peeta: the lone victor
by nora.loves.josh
Summary: for team kfa katniss forever alone . Peeta deserves better. enough said. so if you dislike katniss and love peeta, this is the best story ever! and sorry that i am a terrible summary writer. also if you think katniss is amazing and inspirational or whatever, don't send me hatemail!
1. Chapter 1

_The reaping_

I stood there watching and waiting outside the justice building on this dreaded day, the day of reaping to see which poor unlucky child will be sent off to die. The idea of the games is unbearable, 23 children sent to their deaths every year, and one to live the rest of their life knowing they committed murder, how can the capitol find that entertaining? I hate the capitol. Especially president snow. Not only because he murders innocent children, but because he hurts people that I love. Katniss Everdeen, the only girl I've ever loved goes without food, almost every night in order to feed her family. Yet president snow just sits back and watches it happen, he would kill her and not bat an eye! It sickens me.

A pale skinned pink haired woman walks onto the stage. Effie Trinket. The utterly insane capitol woman, who chooses who will meet certain death. She's not my favorite person either. She greets us with the annual wish of luck, loaded with irony that she is to blind to see, "happy hunger games, and may the odds be _ever_ in your favor." It is neither happy, nor will the odds ever be in anyone's favor. "Ladies first" Effie says, and dips her long finger nails into the bowl. "Hmm" she says and plucks one folded paper out of the bowl. I close my eyes in a silent prayer that it is no one I know well. "Primrose Everdeen." She chides. My heart skips a beat. Katniss's little sister? No way! It was her first year. I scan the crowd and my eyes fall on the dark haired girl, her hair in a braid. I see on her face an expression of horror as though she is trapped in a nightmare. She starts to push toward her little sister. "Prim," she shouts "prim, no prim" a peace keeper grabs her arm and she fights desperately to get to her sister.

"I volunteer." The fatal words of the girl I loved echo through my mind. "I volunteer as tribute." Prim is screaming now, as she is taken away, she too knows that this is a choice of death over watching someone you love die. If I was a girl right now at this moment, I would volunteer for Katniss. I know what she feels for prim, because I feel it for her. Effie congratulates Katniss on being the first tribute, and walks over to the boys' bowl. My heart skips a beat, and I am begging dear god that it is not me, and when I open my eyes. "Peeta Mellark."

My heart stops beating, but only for a second. I was probably just imagining it, right. I look up at Effie and she repeats my name. "Peeta, dear are you out there?" I begin to realize that this is real, and a numb feeling creeps up my body, causing me to sweat nervously. I begin to walk forward. _Why me?_ I think. _Why her?_ I step up the steps to the justice building and Katniss looks at me, her eyes full of memories. I nod to her slightly then allow the peace keepers to lead me away.

I sit in a dark room alone, until my family comes to see me off. First my father walks in and squeezes me tightly. "I will always love you son!" my oldest brother is on the verge of tears, and my slightly younger , but older than me , brother has red spots around his eyes meaning he was crying, I guess for all they tease me and push me around, they really do care. They both hug me. "Hey, don't get too caught up on staring at Everdeen that you forget to fight ok?" he says to me. And I almost smile, but this moment is too painful for happiness. My mother is last to talk to me. She never seems to be proud of me, no matter what I do. I look at her face which reveals nothing, "yeah, she's a fighter that one. Maybe district twelve will finally have a victor." _She's a fighter_; I knew she didn't believe in me. I nod at her and her eyes meet mine; she pats me on the back and walks away. My family leaves the room right after her. I sit and cry for a minute, thinking of the impending doom, bent on destroying me and the girl I love. Where is Katniss for that matter? I dry my eyes and fix my hair. First impressions last forever, and I walk to her room.

I walk in on her crying. Oops, I quietly try to back out but she whirls around, a hateful expression on her face. The hate in her eyes melts away when she realizes that it is just me, and behind it I see a scared little girl. I come and sit next to her. "Um Katniss? Do you need anything?" she wipes her eyes a little. "There's nothing you can do… I just…I wish that I could know that if I don't come back prim will be ok." I look her in the eyes. "Hey, Prim will be ok. Everyone loves her. And your friend Gale… well he can take care of her." She nods and looks at the bag of cookies she is holding. "Oh yeah, your dad gave me these. Want one?" she asked. "Sure," I say, "they look good." We nibble the cookies half-heartedly. "You won't die Katniss" the words that come out of my mouth take me by surprise. "Peeta, the odds will never be in my favor, what do you think I will do? Find a bow and arrow and go hunting for people? I can't do that." She looks down. I look at her. "Would you do it for Prim?" she stiffens at my question. "There are few things I wouldn't do for prim. But Peeta, this is impossible. There are 24 of us, only one comes out alive. I couldn't kill you in cold blood, I couldn't kill anyone."


	2. Chapter 2

_On the train_

Moments later we are told to board the train that will take us to the capitol. After a long period of Katniss crying and me failing to comfort her, Haymitch stumbles in. I can tell by the fact that he can't walk straight that he's still drunk from this morning. Eager to break the awkward silence, I ask, "so. What's our game plan? How are we gonna win this thing?" He smiles at me and his breath reeks of alcohol. "Hmm. So yer Peeta? Well Peeta, we're going to the cap-tol, where we go on the prade. Oh yes en try ta get some sponshersh please. "He slurs. I try to understand him. "Yeah the prade, it's my favorite part." I say. He laughs. "Parade," he looks at us another time, "ah, you two don't stand a chance." He waves his hand dismissively and leaves the room.

Katniss glares after him. "What an idiot! I don't even want that stupid old drunkard to mentor me!" she yells. I try to calm her down. "Yes, but he is our mentor though Katniss, I think we should at least try to listen to him." She scowls. "I don't need any mentoring, bread boy. I'm fine on my own." I smirk. "Funny how quickly you change your mind. A second ago I couldn't even convince you that you stood a chance." She spins around to face me, her hands on her hips. "I am not going to die! If I don't go home, what will happen to prim?" I want to hold her, to tell her that everything will be alright, but I can't, so I settle on squeezing her hand. She pulls away fast. "What are you doing?" she says. "Comforting you." I explain. "You seem sad" she glares at me. "So what do you want to do?" I ask. She debates for a moment. "I'm going to see Haymitch!" she decides. "But he's 'a stupid old drunkard' I thought you don't want his advice?" I say back. "I don't want to die. Maybe he has some knowledge in that old head of his. I need to win!" she storms out of the room and into the beverage car, with me following close behind.

She sits down next to Haymitch. "Tell me how to win!" she demands. He looks mildly surprised. "Oh look who finally came to see me for advice. Never thought I'd see the day. I would help you princess, but as you can see," He gestures to his glass. "I'm busy." She makes fists with her hands. "So you think you're above me? You think that you don't have to talk to me. I will beat your old ugly-" I cut in "okay every one, calm down… no need to fight." Interject to keep them from fighting. Haymitch keeps it going through. "You know what your problem is princess? It's that you're so damn arrogant! Maybe you need to go to the games. Maybe they will humble you a little." I know what's causing him to act like this; the alcohol. He looks almost like he could hit Katniss! I can't let her get hurt so I pick up the bottle. "Okay, that's enough of this." I throw it out the window.

Haymitch flips out. "What the hell you do that for boy?" He punches me across my face. "That was expensive liquor!" he slams his fist on the table, and reaches for another bottle, but BAM! Katniss stabs the table, inches from his hand. Instead of hitting her like he did me, he just laughs. I stare at him, wondering what is so funny, finally he stops. "Finally some tributes with some fight in them. Well maybe you two will stand a chance after all." He stands up. "So you want to know how to win, huh? Well you have to make the capitol like you. So you can get some sponsors." He pushes me back. "See you can be as strong as you want, but sponsors matter more than anything else!" He stops speaking and keels over, a fountain of the day's liquor spewing from him mouth, I guess laughing strained him. Then on top of it, he falls down, his face landing in the puddle of puke. I groan, and I lift him up to his feet. "I'll wash him up Katniss." I say. I don't want her to have to bathe an old man. I take him to the bathroom and strip him down, I throw him in the shower, and the cold water revives him. I leave him to wash himself. As I am turning to leave, he stops me. "Hey Peeta." I turn around; he has a sympathetic look on his face. "I know you love her." I blush. "I'm going to do my best to keep her safe, alright?" I nod. "Thanks." When I walk out I see Katniss staring out the window, and I walk up to her.

"What is it Katniss?"

"We're here."

"Where?"

"The capitol."


	3. Chapter 3

_Here at last_

We step off the train, and walk to the building we will be staying. The insane capitol people disgust Katniss, but intrigue me. Do they know that by wearing their diamonds, fancy clothes and rich food, they were enslaving thousands? Maybe more? Of course they don't. The capitol is blind to all people's suffering. Effie hurries us along the walk way into our rooms. They are all connected, with luxurious furniture in colors so bright it hurt my eyes. They were definitely styled by the capitol. I look out the window. The capitol is spread below us, the colored lights flashing and people yelling. Effie approaches it, "ah yes…isn't it marvelous? I just love it here!" I must not look impressed so she continues. "We have the penthouse you know." we go to the window. "It really is quite lovely, don't you think?"

I sit down on the chair and I realize it's quite comfortable. After all, if I am to die, shouldn't my last moments be with the girl I love, in luxury? "It's great Effie, thanks." She beams. "don't you two just love this? It must be so wonderful that even though it's only for a short time you have this great experience" we give each other a look of amusement. "Oh yeah, I just love it," says Katniss, "too bad we were brought here to be killed." Effie pouts. I hate knowing we've made her upset; after all, it's not her fault. "Katniss…" I say, "It's not her fault." she stops and glares at me. "But it's _true_!" she sits down it the chair across from mine. Haymitch comes in in a hurry. "Get up, get up. Your prep team is ready; you have to make your big appearance tonight." I almost forgot the opening parade! We go down to our stylists rooms were we meet our prep team. Katniss looks to the room across from mine. "How bad can it be?" she asks, "they just make us pretty, right?" "right…" I agree.

There are three of them. Shasta had long purple hair pin straight past her butt, and feather eye lashes with tints of metallic silver and gold. Her nose was thin and pointy, and she had butterflies tattooed all over her body. She talked in a high girlish voice and her electric blue eyes sized you up constantly as if looking at a block of marble and imagining the sculpture within. Asterion had black ringlets flecked with gold, and a deep earthy voice, his eyes were black and his skin was a coppery color and accented his bright clothes. Rialto had pale pink skin and bright blue hair; he has a flattened nose and looked like a bizarre sort of alien. They undressed me and scrubbed me head to toe. They washed my hair with sweet smelling oils and soaps until I was spotless. They rubbed lotion and hosed me down till I was smooth and perfect. They put a strong smelling cream on my face and told me that it was to prevent me from growing a beard. Finally, I met their standards and they took me to Portia, my stylist.

Portia has crimped blonde hair and wears dark smoky makeup. She smiles at me and introduces herself. "Hello Peeta, I am Portia…your stylist." She smiles. Apparently she thinks I'm stupid and decides to talk to me as if I were a young child. I smile back. "Hi Portia." She looks delighted that I can talk. "Yes, yes dear I can see it now. Cina and I are designing you outfits after the coal, they are just magnificent." We talk a bit more and I am delighted to hear that we will be wearing clothes, instead of being nude as the tributes from 12 have been previously. She comes back with a scaly looking black suit. It is tight fitting and modern and I actually think it's pretty cool; it had to be the best outfit designed for twelve yet! "What do you think?" she asks smiling at me. "It, it's amazing!" I stammer. She laughs, "thank you. But hurry and get it on, Katniss and Cina are waiting." I slip into the black body suit and zip it up; it feels surprisingly cool, as if it repels heat. I walk out and see Katniss, she looks beautiful. She is perfect from head to toe, and is wearing an identical outfit. I smile at her and she sort of half smiles back. I see a light out of the corner of my eye, Cina has lit a lighter.

Katniss backs away from the flame. "What do you think you're you doing? She snaps. Cina smiles. "Don't worry dear, it's not real fire. It can't burn you." He holds the torch to us and I see the flames light up all around me. He steps back and admires us. "You two look magnificent! Take a look, take a look!" he points to a mirror and I have to say, we looked stunning. Especially Katniss. I think they did something to her face. She catches me looking at her. "What are _you_ staring at me for?!" she growls. I look away. "Wha- oh sorry, I was just spacing out." She smirks, "_right_." I blush. "So, let's go out there and win over some rich people!" she laughs. "Yeah, let's go." I say desperate to change the subject. We board the fancy chariot and wave our stylists goodbye. Cina points at us. "Smile! And Katniss… be nice! You want to be unified." We nod and our chariot starts forward.

We can hear cheering in the distance and we see the district one chariot move out, into the crowd, closely followed by district two. It will be our turn soon, so I grab Katniss's hand. She pulls away. "I'll rip off your cape if you rip off mine." I joke. She smiles and nudges me. "Come on teammate, we have rich people waiting." She jokes. I hear ceaser flickerman in the distance. "ha ha… what marvelous costumes in district four! I see the irony- oh my! What's that in the distance?" the crowd gasps and all eyes are on us. "It's the district twelve tributes!" the crowd screams in adoration, I look at Katniss. She is smiling, and I'm smiling and the crowd loves it all. I grab her hand and we raise it up in victory. All cameras are on us, and I see our faces on all the screens. The crowd screams our names and they shower us with roses. Katniss catches one and blows kisses, I'm not sure what to do so I wave and smile as if they were my friends. They eat it up, and we are definitely the hit of the parade. I smile at Katniss and she smiles back as we end the ride, we did fantastic and everyone knows it. Maybe we'll have a shot at the games after all. I look at the other tributes to see their outfits, and see the boy from two staring at me with a look of hatred. I look away, definitely not wanting to make enemies with the careers, but Katniss turns around and gives him a look that clearly states, "yeah we did better than you punk, whatcha gonna do about it?" he flips her off and turns back to his partner, a well-built dark haired girl."katniss…" I mutter. She rolls her eyes "Yes I know I know! Your welcome, chicken" she says and struts off.


End file.
